In recent years, there has been a trend toward serving potato skins in restaurants. Potato skins are obtained by first baking a potato until it is about two-thirds baked, slicing the potato lengthwise and scooping the meat out of each half of the potato to leave two skin shells and a quantity of potato meat. The scooped meat is usually served as mashed potatoes, and the skins are sliced and fried.
The currently known method of preparing potato skins has been labor intensive so that they are expensive to the ultimate consumer. As a result, they have generally only been served in more expensive restaurants where the patrons could easily afford the higher costs. Since there is an increasing demand for potato skins in "fast food" restaurants, there is a demand for a simple tool which would enable potato skins to be prepared on a mass production basis while simultaneously permitting the meat of the potato to be formed into shapes suitable for frying.